1.2 billion smartphones to be shipped in 2014; Android to have 79 percent market share: IDC

While it was predicted that 2014 would see an increase in smartphone shipments compared to the feature phone units, research predicts that as many as 1.2 billion new smartphones are expected to be shipped this year.

According to market research by IDC, 1.2 billion new smartphones would be shipped in 2014, of which over 950 million smartphones would be powered by Android OS, thus accounting for nearly 79 percent of the smartphone market share in 2014, to become the invincible leader in the industry. iOS, which is at the second spot, would have 14.9 percent market share with nearly 180 million shipments.

Windows Phone is clearly rising higher and close to attaining a 4 percent market share in 2014 with 47 million shipments. This is projected to nearly double by 2018 with an estimated 7 percent market share. Android and iOS would however start declining to 76 percent and 14.4 percent market share in 2018.

BlackBerry, which is facing serious market issues, may get just 1 percent of the market share in 2014, with 11.9 million shipments expected. However, this figure is predicted to drop to 0.3 percent by 2018, which hints that the company is bound to die. 1.3 percent of the market share is occupied by other OS which power smartphones coming out mainly from China.